In November 2016, MP Mehmet Çakıcı, the founder of the party and its leader until 2013, resigned from the party, as did former MP Mustafa Emiroğulları and 70 other members including the former Minister of Agriculture Sami Dayıoğlu. Many of these members had originated from the Communal Liberation Party and they criticised what they saw as the nepotism by Cemal Özyiğit. They went on to form a new party under the same name as their political origin.[4]

2015 Turkish Cypriot presidential campaign

On 13 March 2015, Mustafa Akıncı, a former member of the parliament from the party, completed his application to run for presidency, and was endorsed by the Communal Democracy Party.[5]

During his campaign, he put his voice forward regarding the ghost town Varosha, which is a very lively topic regarding the Cyprus problem. It was possible to see that Akıncı favoured a settling approach to solve this problem. Regarding Varosha, Akıncı stated that, "Instead of living side by side a corpse let Varosha become a lively city where people live, contractors from both communities do business together and young people can find jobs".[6]

Akıncı went on to the second round by receiving 26.94% of the votes in the first round, and was elected president in the second round with 60.5% of the votes.

See also

References

^ abAndrekos Varnava; Christalla Yakinthou (2011). Cyprus: Political Modernity and the Structures of Democracy in a Divided Island. The Oxford Handbook of Local and Regional Democracy in Europe. Oxford University Press. p. 469.